The State Department announced funding for up to 50 new Ebola outbreak treatment clinics in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Implementing partners will use the clinics to contain affected areas and provide emergency Ebola screening and triage.
“We know from previous outbreak response that ensuring partners rapidly scale up containment and treatment efforts in the affected regions is the most critical variable to ensuring an effective response and that the disease does not spread,” state department officials said in a statement online.
The Ebola outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 17. Since then, some 118 people have died.
In response, the State Department disbursed $23 million in bilateral foreign assistance to immediately bolster the disease management abilities of the Congo and DRC.
“This additional funding announcement, in the first days of the epidemic, should send a clear message: the United States has an ironclad commitment to ensuring this response is fully resourced, rapid, and cooperative between key global health and humanitarian partners,” state department officials said.
The funding is earmarked to support surveillance, laboratory capacity, risk communication, safe burials, entry and exit screening, and clinical case management.
Ebola disease is caused by a group of viruses and is contracted by contact with a dead person or a sick person’s sweat, blood, feces, or vomit. Frontline medical workers and family members are at the highest risk for infection.
“The Department’s first priority is the protection of Americans and the American homeland,” state department officials said. “The Department is working with interagency partners to evacuate, for medical treatment and/or quarantine and procedures, any affected American citizens.”
Financing provided by the United States will be allocated through Central Emergency Response Funds (CERF), which is a pooled funding vehicle administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA was created in 1991 by the UN General Assembly and previously functioned as the Department of Humanitarian Affairs. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan renamed the DHA as OCHA in 1998 for the purposes of humanitarian advocacy and overall emergency response coordination.
“Our combined reforms helped OCHA deliver a record disbursement timeline in our December 2025 funding tranche – proven speed of operations at scale that will be critical in ensuring resources reach the frontline in these critical first days of this outbreak response,” the state department added.